GE takes another look at PCB fix

While opposed to it, General Electric studies dredging expansion

Updated 7:11 am, Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Barges with backhoes work in the Hudson River just below Lock 7 seen here during a boat tour along the Champlain Canal and the Hudson River to see the PCB dredging process taking place on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011 near Fort Edward. The tour was open to members of the media, members of the Community Advisory Group for the Hudson River PCBs Superfund Site and other interested parties. The State's Canal Corp provided the boat and the EPA gave the tour. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union)

Barges with backhoes work in the Hudson River just below Lock 7...

An excavator brings up sediment off of the bed of the Hudson River as General Electric's PCB dredging project is ahead of schedule due to lack of rain this year, Wednesday Aug. 22, 2012 in Fort Edward, N.Y. (Dan Little/Special to the Times Union)

ALBANY — General Electric Co. will study an expansion of its PCB cleanup of the Hudson River, in order to cooperate with state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, but continues to oppose such work as unnecessary.

On Monday, DiNapoli's office announced that GE will file a study by the end of the year on dredging more river bottom than currently required under its cleanup agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

In return, the comptroller agreed to withdraw a shareholder resolution calling for the company to do such a study. DiNapoli offered that resolution in his role as overseer of the state pension fund, which holds more than $767 million in GE stock.

"The company has agreed to analyze its potential exposure in the event that the EPA determines that PCBs remaining in the river pose an unacceptable risk to public health or the environment," said DiNapoli. "It is much better to act sooner rather than later."

At issue are up to 136 acres of river bottom that contain pockets of PCBs, but are not scheduled to be cleaned under a 500-acre cleanup agreement reached in 2005 by GE and EPA. Part of what would be left undredged includes the impaired navigation channel of the state-owned Champlain Canal.

In 2011, two federal agencies responsible for the river warned that omission risked allowing PCBs from untouched areas — some of which are within 200 feet of sites due to be dredged – to spread later into spots that had been cleaned up.

In recommending a larger cleanup, officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service said those areas turned out to have more PCBs than was known at the time the cleanup agreement was crafted.

On Monday, GE spokesman Mark Behan said that EPA has decided three times not to expand its original cleanup agreement with the company, a decision that GE supports. "As does EPA, we do not believe the additional work is necessary," he said.

In 2010, cleanup standards were relaxed by EPA for the project's second phase. During the first phase in 2009, the river bottom where PCBs were 30 parts per million or more were dredged. In the second phase, which began in 2011, only river bottom with 90 ppm or more had to be cleaned.

NOAA and USFW have no legal power to compel an expanded cleanup.

While EPA will not require expanded dredging, the issue could become part of potential future legal action by the state, under what is called a Natural Resources Damages Claim, which is under the control of the state Attorney General, or by the state Canal Corporation, which has pushed for years for an expanded cleanup in order to restore its channel depth.

In a June 2012 report on the status of the cleanup, EPA said that should either legal action force an expanded cleanup, EPA would work with GE to "ensure these efforts are integrated as efficiently as possible."